Steve Jobs Talks About An Inner Voice

It isn’t usual that we hear an inner voice and if we tell people, they might think we are weird. I have heard a number of people say they have heard Jesus talk and direct them. I don’t question that because I believe them and think it is scripturally possible.

I take Forges Magazine and went to their website. I read an article by Eric Jackson “Tell the Top Ten Lessons Steve Jobs Taught Us”. Included in the article were parts of a speech Steve Jobs gave in 2005 at Stanford University’s commencement. Eric Jackson wrote “Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told he only had a few weeks to live. As Samuel Johnson said, there’s nothing like your impending death to focus the mind.”

Following is from Steve Jobs speech at Stanford: “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

From a leadership and management background I was impressed at the ten points Steve Jobs taught. As a Christian the sentence that said: “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” I don’t know whether it was used as a metaphor or an actual voice. I assume it was a metaphor. If people talk about a voice and not their conscience then whose voice are they hearing? To many Christians, an inner voice can be audible and to a non-Christian the inner voice could be your conscience or an audible voice but from an evil spirit.

I previously wrote two blogs: Are some people evil? The other was: “Amy Winehouse was one of many rock stars to die at age 27”. The question came from a story that was read to us when I was in grade school. It was “The Devil and Daniel Webster”. The story concerned a farmer who sold his soul to the devil for a better more prosperous life. I have never stopped wondering; when someone hears an inner voice, whose is it? No way am I implying that either of the above heard actual voices but it leaves a troubling question. Anyone hearing an inner voice must be careful from whom and where it comes from.

What Steve Jobs did for the world was the work of a genius. No one can question his ingenuity. I have always wondered what made Einstein, Ford, Edison, Lincoln and so many others so different from the other 99.9% of the population. There were many spiritual Christian giants that affected the world. We think they were hearing an inner voice that came from the Holy Spirit. How many people actually hear an audible inner voice? We know some do!

What we do know about these individuals is that they had a gift, talent, ambition and determination. They had a vision and a passion that consumed them almost 24/7. How many others may have had similar gifts, talents but lacked ambition, a vision or the passion? One thing genius’ all had was confidence and all were tenacious to the point of never giving up on what they believed.

Steve said: “Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.” I hope heaven was his goal and that inner voice he was talking about was the Holy Spirit, if he was referring to an actual voice and not meaning his conscience. It is not hard to believe that God controls the development of all technology and Steve was chosen to be that person. This is not an assumption.

Some day we may learn the answer when God tells me what potential I had and wasted it. You may have the potential of some of these famous individuals. Seek your vision and develop a passion. Be tenacious and never give up on your dream, regardless what others may say. When you pray, ask for God to give you a purpose and His direction. Then expect it!